


Starting in First Grade

by Phimini



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, and also as adults, rhys and tim as kids, rhysothy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 14:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11671383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phimini/pseuds/Phimini
Summary: It was first grade when they met. Tim wondered where they would be if he had never said hi.





	Starting in First Grade

**Author's Note:**

> Just a couple notes about this AU: Rhys was adopted as a baby by Janey and Athena, who he calls Mum and Mom respectively. Athena runs a successful security company and Janey owns a junk yard. 
> 
> Um. I'm also not good at writing kids so. I tried? [sweats]

“Hi, my name is Tim. What's yours?”  
  
Rhys looked up from unpacking his Pokémon lunch box to see a freckled boy from his class smiling shyly at him. Rhys grinned wide at Tim, excited that one of his new classmates was talking to him. He was new at the school, only recently having moved to the neighborhood with his mothers. It was his first day, and six year old Rhys still hadn’t made any friends.  
  
“I’m Rhys!”  
  
“Can I sit with you?” Tim asked, pointing to the bright, plastic chair next to him. Rhys nodded eagerly, and Tim sat down, squirming with young, happy energy. “I really like your lunch box! Charmander is pretty cool. Pikachu is my favorite, though.”  
  
Rhys squirmed in delight at the compliment. “Pokémon is my favorite show!” he said with a gapped and toothy grin, brimming with the kind of energy only a child had. “I have a yellow Gameboy and I have Pokémon Blue! We should battle!”  
  
The other boy fidgeted in his seat and played with a scrap of paper sitting on the table in front of him. “Oh. I don’t have a Gameboy,” he mumbled, head bowed.  
  
Rhys tilted his head curiously. Didn’t everyone have a Gameboy? “How come?”  
  
Tim shrugged. “My mom says we’re too poor. She said we can’t have fun games and stuff,” he said quietly, looking down at his feet and kicking a tennis ball that had ended up under the table.  
  
“Oh.” Rhys picked at his lunch and popped a baby carrot into his mouth, processing Tim’s words in his head. “You could come over to my house and I could show you,” he suggested, and Tim looked up, his expression brightening.  
  
“Really?” Tim said, his mismatched eyes going wide just at the prospect of going to Rhys’ house. “Can I?”  
  
Rhys’ toothy grin appeared again and he nodded eagerly. “Yeah! I’ll ask my moms! I bet they’ll say yes. We can watch Pokémon and eat macaroni and cheese and play board games and stuff!”  
  
“That sounds awesome!” Tim breathed in wonder. “Macaroni and cheese is the best! My mom never makes macaroni and cheese.” As if summoned by the mention of food, Tim’s stomach let out a loud grumble, but the boy didn’t seem to notice it. Rhys did, however.  
  
“Did your mom forget to give you lunch?” he inquired, kicking his legs in his chair as he stuffed a graham cracker into his mouth.  
  
Tim shook his head. “No. My mom doesn’t make lunch for me.”  
  
Rhys frowned, his young mind trying to wrap itself around that statement. Moms were supposed to make lunch for kids, right? Rhys, adopted and raised by two upper class working women, was accustomed to having all his needs met, and was confused why another mom wouldn’t do the same for his new friend.  
  
“Do you wanna share?”  
  
Before Tim could reply, Rhys was pushing half his lunch towards the other boy, carefully dividing his carrots and graham crackers evenly, and giving half his neatly cut peanut butter and jelly sandwich to Tim.  
  
  
  
  
Later, long after the school day had ended and Rhys was back home again, the little boy wandered into the large kitchen where his mom was making dinner.  
  
Athena smiled at her boy and ruffled his hair as he came to stand by her. Rhys let out a little huff as his mother pulled her hand back and he tried to fix his hair. “Dinner isn’t quite ready yet, honey.” Rhys hugged his mom around her hips, and Athena laughed softly at how affectionate her boy could be.  
  
“Can you make me two lunches tomorrow, mom? Pleeeeeaaaase?” he said, looking up at Athena with big, innocent, charming eyes. She raised a brow curiously.  
  
“Two lunches, sweetheart? Are you that hungry at school?”  
  
Rhys shook his head. “My friend Tim said his mom doesn’t make lunch for him. Can I bring lunch for him, mom? Can I? Please?”  


 

***

  
  
Timothy Lawrence, now grown and mature, let out a long, blissful sigh and turned his head on his pillow to watch Rhys doze against him, his whole body relaxed in the way that only came after being completely satisfied. He let his hand ghost up Rhys' back until he brought it to the nape of his neck and began gently massaging the lax muscles there.  
  
Rhys made a soft noise, like a cat woken from a nap, and opened his eyes to blink drowsily up at his husband. “Hey,” he mumbled, brain still sluggish and foggy from his light sleep.  
  
Tim felt a kaleidoscope of butterflies stir in his belly at the sleepy, affectionate look Rhys was giving him, and he had to consciously remind himself to breathe. God, he was such a goner for Rhys, and he didn’t regret it one bit.  
  
Tim smiled, dopey and lovestruck. “Hey,” he replied.  
  
Rhys blinked a few more times before nuzzling into Tim’s shoulder. “Whatcha thinkin’ about?”  
  
“Who said I was thinking?” Tim teased, and Rhys turned his head to roll his eyes at the other man. Rhys could always read him like an open book. Tim didn’t mind.  
  
“I can practically hear the gears turning in your head which, frankly, is a little insulting considering you should be just as blissed out as me after that fuck.”  
  
Tim tipped his head back and laughed, making Rhys grin as he was jostled by Tim’s shaking shoulders. “Oh, you know me, sweetheart. My brain rarely shuts off,” he replied, after his laughter subsided.  
  
“Mhmm,” Rhys intoned fondly. “So what’s turning those water wheels this time, hot stuff?”  
  
Tim snorted at the pet name and wound his hand into Rhys’ hair to scritch his scalp, just the way he liked it. He got a pleased hum in return. “Do you know what the best decision of my life was?”  
  
“To fuck my brains out?”  
  
Tim burst into laughter again at Rhys’ blunt and unashamed words. “You are incorrigible, you know that? God, you’re such a little slut!” He covered his face with his free hand as he worked through his giggles, Rhys unapologetically grinning into his shoulder and kissing the freckles that were within his reach. “No, that’s not it,” he affirmed after getting himself back under control. “But I promise, it’s a close second.” Rhys raised his head to grin at him and Tim ruffled his already messy hair.    
  
His grin faded to something more fond as he resumed scritching Rhys’ scalp. He was sure he looked disgustingly lovesick. “No, the best decision of my life was when I decided to say hi to you in first grade. Where would we be now if we hadn’t become friends back then, I wonder?”  
  
Rhys purred and buried his face against Tim’s shoulder, enjoying his gentle ministrations. “I think, if we hadn’t become friends, I would be pretty miserable right now,” Rhys said, and he sighed in content. “What’s the point of life if I don’t have my Timmy?”  
  
Tim blushed and smiled, feeling his heart flutter at Rhys’ words. To be so loved and wanted made his stomach do somersaults of joy. “I’d like to think if I hadn’t said hi that day, we would have ended up together somehow. Destiny would have brought us together.”  
  
It was Rhys’ turn to snort this time. “Destiny, Tim?” he said incredulously. “You read way too many Harlequins.”  
  
Tim blushed and smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I know. Reading just one in a lifetime is probably too many, but they’re brainless fun.”  
  
“Doooooooooork!”  
  
Tim gave Rhys’ ass a light slap through the bed sheets, making Rhys squeak indignantly and Tim giggle childishly.  
  
“I remember that day,” Rhys said, after sticking his tongue out at his husband. “You complimented my lunch box.”  
  
Tim grinned and made an affirmative sound. “I did. You shared your lunch with me after I told you my mom didn’t make me lunches.”  
  
The leggy man in Tim’s arms grunted. “Twenty years later and I still can’t fathom how your mom could pack a lunch for Jack but not you.”  
  
“Mm, you know how screwed up my family is, hon.”  
  
Rhys let out a petulant huff. “Yeah, but it still grinds my gears.”  
  
“You started bringing me lunches the next day, remember?” Rhys nodded.  
  
“Yeah. I think my mom thought I was turning into a dinosaur when I asked for a second lunch, like the first wasn’t enough to fill me up.”  
  
Tim chuckled.  
  
“Your moms are saints. They were the reason I didn’t go hungry at school for years.” Tim squeezed Rhys, feeling emotion swell in his chest. “I remember the first time you were absent from school in first grade, I thought I was out of luck for lunch. But then Janey came in and brought me lunch since you weren’t there.”  
  
Rhys squirmed in Tim’s arms, and Tim loosened his hold on him. Rhys sat up enough to press a chaste kiss to his lips, then turned his attention to kissing the array of freckles dusting his cheeks and nose. “They took a real shine to you,” he said, drawing away to take in the sweet, rosy blush spreading over Tim’s cheeks. “You know, after that first time you came over to my parents’ house, mum predicted we’d get married someday.”  
  
Tim scoffed. “Bulllshit, she did not.”  
  
Rhys laughed, pressed another kiss to Tim’s lips, then settled back down against his side. “She swears up and down she did, and mom corroborated it.”  
  
“Yeah right.”  
  
“Hey, you know mum is weirdly good at those kinds of predictions.”  
  
“Mm. True.” He reached for Rhys’ hand and fiddled with the wedding band on his finger. “And she was right. We did, indeed, get married.”  
  
Rhys sighed dreamily and looked up at Tim, his expression unguarded and brimming with affection. “Yeah. We did.”  
  
Tim felt his stomach do flip flops at that look, and asked himself what he’d done to deserve such an incredible man. He rolled onto his side, making Rhys whine as he was dislodged and rolled onto his back. Tim leaned over him to kiss Rhys slowly and thoroughly. He hummed happily, pressing himself against his husband and letting his hand drift up to lightly stroke Rhys' cheek. Rhys made a soft, drawn out sound of content and draped his arms over Tim's shoulders. When they finally drew apart, they were both breathless and flushed.  
  
“I love you, Rhys.”  
  
Rhys looked dazed, but absolutely, positively happy. “I love you too, Tim.”  
  
Tim leaned down to kiss him again, pulling back after a few lazy moments. “I still think Pikachu is better, though.”  
  
That sent Rhys into peals of giggles.

**Author's Note:**

> So, thanks for reading, I suppose. I'm uh. Super nervous about sharing?? I typically never share my writing with a larger audience; I usually opt to show like, one person my stupid shit and then the file is left to rot in my gdrive. But I really love baby Timmy and Rhys and there's not enough Rhysothy out there so I figured I might as well risk my self esteem to spread the love. 
> 
> (I'm being dramatic but I really am nervous to share ha)


End file.
